The Culinary Master
by Hikaru Irving
Summary: [AWL Oneshot] Lloyd the rooky farmer never had time to cook for himself, so he lived by foraging tasty wild plants and the occasional fish. But is this an acceptable way to feed your family? Celia certainly doesn't think so.


Hikaru: First Harvest Moon fanfic, based on A Wonderful Life, original version. My dude's name is Lloyd. He married Celia, and his son's name is Senel. This is a oneshot poking fun on how I chose to have Lloyd prepare his meals. Takes place early when Celia and Lloyd get married, and a little afterwards. Oh, yeah. Don't own, and don't make profit.

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He was a little iffy about the idea Takakura had when he first brought him to Forget-Me-Not Valley, but Lloyd came to like farming well enough. He found it fun and rewarding, especially when he pulled out all the stops on collecting items as well as harvesting his cash crops and animal products and selling them to the townsfolk or when Van the merchant came to town.

Lloyd, as Takakura adivsed, got to know the people in Forget-Me-Not-Valley. Many of them were interesting and fun to be around, especially Carter, Griffin, and who could forget Daryl? Lloyd found Daryl wandering around his farm (named Iselia farm) on numerous occasions, a few times to capture the white furry creature, once to experiment on his cows (one of which was pregnant), and another to "study childhood behavior." Despite his mad scientist attitude and getup, Lloyd came to befriend him. Also, Lloyd had been really upset when he told Daryl how he spent hard-earned six thousand G's on a Seed Maker, when Daryl told him he could have asked, and Daryl would've gotten him one free of charge.

Frickin' mad scientists.

Then Lloyd met the girls around town. Adjusting from city life to country life, farmer life specifically, had been hard. He handled it best he could, but when Patrick, a local customer of the Blue Bar in town, saw Lloyd so very stressed out, he took Lloyd to the bar. Since many of the drinks were expensive, Lloyd only drank one shot of the cheapest alcohol available, the Red something or other. He'd had a good time at the bar, loosening up, getting to know the townsfolk better. The first woman he met was Muffy, the curly blonde waitress at the Blue Bar.

Muffy was pretty enough, Lloyd had to admit. But as the year went on, Lloyd doubted that Muffy was the kind of wife he was looking for. He'd known Nami, the traveler, but the start of summer, Lloyd heard she would be moving onto her next destination. Then there was Celia. She farmed, too, on the farm near his own. He bought his crop seeds from there, and although Celia was shy, he had gotten to know her.

Then come mid-summer, the Harvest Sprites had come to Lloyd bearing the blue feather, the symbol of proposal and engagement. Even as Lloyd went on about his life taking care of his farm, the blue feather, sitting in the tool shed, was always at the back of his mind. Get married, Takakura always said, get married and raise a family. If you don't, you'll regret it later. Lloyd hadn't thought much about it during the sweltering summer heat, but by fall, his farm was doing much better than it had the last half year. If he continued going on like he was, the farm was bound to be very prosperous. If he didn't marry and have a child, what would happen to the farm, his hard work, his life's work, no, his father's life's work?

He had to tie the knot with someone, and soon.

Lloyd had already established he didn't prefer the types like Muffy (although she took the rejection pretty hard), and Nami was preparing to leave . . . so that left Celia. He'd liked Flora and Chris, but Lloyd suspected they both might be romantically involved with someone else. During the fall, when Lloyd woke early, worked hard in the morning, he had the afternoon free, and took this time to buy more seeds for next season and to spend time with Celia.

He found out that he did in fact like her. Lloyd showered her with gifts of flowers, compliments, and even gave her some of his eggs, crops, and milk. Fall quickly passed, and then winter with it. Lloyd had only one failed crop so far, the sweet potatoes that were so close to being ready for harvest wilted come winter.

Lloyd had already proposed to Celia with the blue feather, late fall. She was so happy when he offered her the feather, and she accepted right then and there. Vesta certainly was happy, but Marlin certainly wasn't. At the end of the year, the marriage finally took place, and Celia moved in.

Celia was a great cook already, but Celia had asked Lloyd about what he cooked, something they didn't talk about before. Lloyd was very shy in answering, but honesty was the best policy, so he had meekly answered:

"I never had time to cook for myself. So I foraged for wild plants and lived off those."

Celia didn't believe that Lloyd could work the farm as well as he had without cooking properly for himself. When their son Senel came along, too, Lloyd began to feel that foraging for his food wasn't the best way to go about his life. He had to learn actual cooking, and soon. But he was busy with the farm and other odd jobs to earn a living . . . His current routine was to take care of the crops and the animals, and then spend the afternoon digging in the archaeology site to get artifacts to be sold at Van's shop.

Occasionally he got a golden egg or golden wool from his animals. His cow Ginger had stopped giving milk, so he had their Star Bull Coffee breed with her. He also took time to fish. The eggs from the chicken coop he began to stock in the fridge so Celia could cook with them, and the fertilized ones he sold once the coop was getting crowded.

He had another bull, a normal one, but he was just taking up space. He did have a Star Bull, after all, the best kind of cattle. Selling SeaSalt would add a chunk of change to his budget. He could finally step toward the Food Processing Room so he could start producing cheese and butter from milk.

But even as Lloyd did all of this for the sake of his family and farm, Celia still insisted that he learn to properly cook instead of foraging all the time. But honey, Lloyd had pleaded, Ceaser gets exercise and gets to graze outside the pasture! The forest plants are tasty, too. At least cook for winter, Celia had countered. Lloyd had to agree with that. In winter before he had married, the wild plants were scarce. He only found one or two a day, three if he was lucky. He had to carefully ration the food he found between himself and his dog. Lloyd could not do that now that he had a family.

So it was with a heavy heart that he used his free time hunting for recipies in unlikely places--the recipe for a dessert in Nina's memorial shrine, for instance. For many of his recipies, though, he'd have to wait until his crops bore fruit and the vegetables grew. The apple tree would bear fruit in the fall, too.

So, until summer came around, Celia and Senel had to put up with Lloyd bringing home fish or wild plants.

Even though the wife and child would never admit it, it was just as tasty as if Lloyd had cooked the dinner himself.

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Hikaru: Didn't turn out exactly like I planned, but hey, I'm writing on insomnia! Never turns out like one plans. Oh, yeah . . . random rant. Lumina is so pretty. It's too bad you can't marry her unless you buy the PS2 port. What really steams me about that is that Lumina can have either a son or a daughter! I want a daughter! Daughter! Sigh. Hope you liked it and please review!


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